


Bells

by inqwex



Series: Episode Tags [5]
Category: Station 19 (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 17:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18525901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inqwex/pseuds/inqwex
Summary: A fix it for 2.14 because waiting two weeks?





	Bells

"I'm here, buddy," Robert assured him as Ripley started to stir.

"Where's Vic?" Lucas started to sit up. "Where's Vic?"

"I can't get hold of her," Robert admitted, and Lucas froze, eyes wide.

"I have to get to the diner," he said, starting to sit up again.

"Woah, woah," Robert said, pushing his shoulder back down. "You can't go anywhere."

"What time is it? You don't understand!" 

"Luke, buddy, you hit your head, you collapsed. It's 1030, you're at Grey Sloan," Robert explained. "What diner?"

"Vic," he repeated. "I was getting flowers... I was standing looking at rings for hours last night and I didn't want to get something she didn't like and so I just got her something that she can wear at work if she wants but that's not enough so I needed flowers and what kind of flowers say yes I would have said yes yesterday and I'm still saying yes after sleeping on it -" a coughing fit interrupted his rant, but then he started to sit back up. "I need to go."

"Buddy, lie back, I'll find her and bring her here -"

"You need to explain," his eyes widened as he tried to pat at pockets that weren't there. "My pants!"

A nurse held up a plastic bag of Lucas' clothing.

"Sully, please, tell her," Lucas begged.

"I'll bring her here, you tell her yourself," Robert said, opening the plastic bag and lifting out his friend's jeans, finding the ring box in his pocket. He gave it to Lucas, wrapping the other man's fingers around it. "You give her this. I'll get her here soon."

"She's gonna be so mad at me," he groaned, as the doctors and nurses pushed him back down gently.

"Let these people do their jobs," Robert instructed. "I'll explain that you were brought here. The rest you tell her."

"Why can't you get onto her?" the other man asked desperately.

"I'll find her," Robert promised. "I'll be back with her soon." He turned, straight into Herrera and Warren who wore twin expressions of confusion. "Both of you. Keep trying to get Hughes on the phone," he barked. "Actually, Warren, I'll leave you here to keep trying and so that we can contact you directly."

"Hughes... and Ripley?!" Herrera squeaked in surprise. Warren's jaw simply fell open.

"I think it's a long story," Robert said, shaking his head. "Let's go."

* * *

 

Vic reached the bottom of the tower and started to mechanically unharness herself.

"Hughes," she looked up to see Sullivan hovering, a strange expression on his face. "Vic - um..."

She frowned at the uncharacteristic use of her nickname and the somewhat choked quality of his voice.

"It's...Luke, he's in hospital," Sullivan seemed to not know any other way so he just blurted it out.

Her hands fell limply from the harness, and suddenly she could hear the blood rushing in her ears. "What?"

"He collapsed," Sullivan said. "This morning. He's at Grey Sloan. The doctors think he had a heart attack from smoke inhalation."

Travis' arm wrapped around her waist. "Is he okay?" he asked for her.

"He's pretty sick, but the first thing he did when he regained consciousness was ask for you," Sullivan said, and Vic realised the expression she couldn't quite place was sympathy. "He sort of told me what was going on? At least, he said that he was supposed to meet you at a diner and he keeps trying to get out of bed to get to you."

Vic could only stand there like a lump.

"Herrera, call Warren, tell him to tell him we're on our way, and she's fine," Sullivan barked.

"Okay, Vic, harness off," Travis said, gently unbuckling her harness for her. Sullivan wrapped an arm around her shoulders, steering her to the aid car. She stumbled getting in, and strapped herself in automatically. Sullivan hopped into the driver's seat.

"I thought he stood me up," she said to the dashboard, not sure exactly how Sullivan knew but really not caring.

"He didn't intentionally," Sullivan replied gently. "He loves you. He wanted me to tell you that."

* * *

Warren met them at the door.

"They're prepping him for surgery," he said without preamble, and it was like a kick to Vic's heart.

"Surgery?" she asked faintly.

"They did a CT head and he's got a pretty nasty subdural," Warren said. "Grey's gonna take him -"

"Warren -" Sullivan snapped.

"I need to see him," Vic said.

"Is he awake?" Sullivan asked.

Warren nodded. "Fortunately they did the CT when he mentioned the headache and the fact that he had two head injuries -"

"Two head injuries?" Vic parroted.

"He went down inside the building yesterday, and then when he collapsed -"

Suddenly, it was like the fugue state she'd been wandering in disappeared. "I'm gonna kill him," Vic vowed. "If he dies, I'll bring him back, and kill him again."

The nurse outside the door to the resus room looked in alarm at her words. "You can't come in, we're getting him ready for surgery."

"I need to see him," Vic said firmly, moving forward anyway.

"Ma'am, we're prepping him -"

"The ring box he's refusing to let anyone take away from him is for her," Warren said, pointing at Vic. "He was this close to discharging AMA to find her and give her the damn thing. Let her in."

"I'll check if he's decent -"

Vic ignored the nurse, pushing past her into the room.

"A  _ring_?!" Maya asked, and Robert turned to see that his entire crew were standing outside the room with them.

"From what he's told me - and it's all been a rambling, disjointed mess -" Warren's words were interrupted by Vic's yelling, clearly audible outside the room.

" _YOU STUPID IDIOT_ ," she said. " _You HIT YOUR HEAD?!_ _You've been COUGHING?! LUCAS RIPLEY_ I'm going to  _KILL_ you." 

"I'll explain in the waiting room," Warren said hurriedly, ushering them all away after an alarmed glance at the door.

* * *

 

"Wait,  _Hughes and Ripley_?" Maya repeated, not for the first time. Warren had explained what he'd pieced together from Ripley.

" _Our_ Vic? In a  _relationship_?" Dean agreed.

"Since when?" Andy asked.

"You've known the longest, Jack," Travis said, turning to the lieutenant.

Jack suddenly felt the weight of the room's eyes.

"Why Gibson?" Andy demanded, and Jack flinched a little.

"It was by accident," he said. "A badly timed phone call from a caller ID that still said Ripley. This was, like, seven months ago? Eight?"

"She kept a  _secret_ from  _us_ for that long?!" Dean said incredulously. "Is it ... like, serious?"

"She proposed yesterday," Travis said. 

" _She_ proposed?" Robert couldn't help but ask. "I thought  _he_ proposed?"

"Well he did. She was going to say yes but then I talked her out of it because it was just to get around the whole, they're not supposed to date thing, and then after he went in and came out of the beanery she said no to his proposal and then proposed to him instead."

"It wasn't just to get around the rank issue," Sullivan said, feeling a little defensive of his former-turned-again friend, and as the room all turned to him, it was his turn to feel a little off-balance. "He's ..."

"He's crazy in love with her. Besotted. Smitten. It's a little gross?" Ben chimed in. "Like, you have no idea. I've just spent the last hour listening to a litany of how amazing he thinks she is."

"Vic and  _Ripley_?" Maya repeated.

"It's not like you've never dated someone weird," Andy snapped back.

The scene was interrupted by Vic racing back in.

"Warren, you used to work here," she said. "I need a priest."

"What?" 

"Get me a priest. We need a priest," she repeated. "He needs to go for surgery, but we need a priest first. _GO!_ "

Ben clearly thought it wasn't worth trying to work out what was going on, so he raced out of the room.

"Vic, what are you doing?" Travis asked slowly and as reasonably as he could.

"Getting married before that  _idiot_ tries to die again," she said, as if it was obvious.

"Woah, woah, you're getting married?" Dean waved his hands around. 

"Vic, it's obviously been an emotional day -" Maya agreed, trying to sound as rational as possible.

"You don't know anything," Vic replied. "Like, I was ready to marry him yesterday when he suggested it but then Travis got into my head about it and he was right I shouldn't marry him if he just wants the piece of paper and I don't just want a piece of paper but then I proposed for real and then I was ready to marry him for real and he got me a ring for real and -"

"He's got a head injury, doesn't he?" Jack interrupted. Vic glared at him.

"He's not going in to brain surgery and maybe dying so I can spend the rest of my life regretting not marrying the best person I've ever met," she replied.

"And if he doesn't die and you're married for real to him?" Dean asked. "That's pretty permanent."

"That's the point," Vic said. "I want to marry him for real."

"You can't just get married by finding a priest," Travis said slowly. "There's paperwork -"

"It's not about the paperwork," Vic objected. "It's about  _us_. I know it won't be legally binding. It's for  _us_."

"Oh god, this is like, the complete reverse of yesterday morning," Travis shook his head.

"This is a terrible idea," Dean shook his head.

"You don't know! You don't know how sweet, funny, clever,  _unbelievably moronic_ , kind,  _ridiculously_ stubborn and hot he is," Vic burst out. "Plus he has great veins."

Sullivan burst out laughing. "Veins?"

"You could easily get a fourteen in the back of the hand," Vic nodded.

"Okay, we've hit the twilight zone," Jack said, shaking his head.

"You'll be my best man?" Vic turned to Travis.

"Of course," he said.

"And he wants you as his best man," Vic turned to Sullivan, who looked surprised, then pleased. "And the rest of you can be there."

She turned, and started to walk back into the resuscitation bay, pausing when she realised no-one was following. "Come on."

"I have a condition," Ripley said as soon as she walked back in. Travis glanced nervously at his friend. 

"A condition?" her eyes narrowed.

"It's brain surgery. Worst case scenario is not that I die, Vic, it's that I'm some brain dead vegetable who can't move," he said, pragmatically. "Promise me, if that happens, you'll find me a nursing home and move on."

"Move on?" she repeated dumbly. "From _you_?!"

"I don't want you saddled to my dumb ass," he said. "Move on." He paused. "Maybe make it a nice nursing home?"

"Fine," Vic said, before her eyes widened. "You should tell Jennifer."

"I don't have my phone. Do you have yours?"

Vic patted at her pockets with her free hand. "No?"

"Here," Travis handed her his phone. Ripley rattled off a number, and Vic entered it, handing the phone to Ripley.

"Jennifer? I'm getting married," he said without preamble. "I'm about to have brain surgery, and so I'm marrying Vic. Yeah. I'm at Grey Sloan."

"Oh for gods sake," Sullivan muttered under his breath, reaching over and taking the phone off his friend. "Let me explain. Hi, Jen, it's Bobby Sullivan. Yeah. I know you're confused. You knew he was - okay, at least you knew about her. Here's what's happened in the last thirty-six hours."

"Who's Jennifer?" Travis hissed.

"His sister," "My sister," came the replies from the couple who were just holding hands and looking at each other.

"You're sure, Vic," Ripley checked.

"I'm sure, you're sure?"

"Obviously," he said. " _Obviously_."

Ben re-entered the room, dragging a confused elderly gentleman with him.

"We need to get married," Vic said, turning immediately to them. Travis watched as Ripley just kept looking at Vic, like he was trying to memorise her.

"I mean, it's not...I can say the words but do you have a licence? Dr Warren said he has a head injury, I can't be sure if he can even agree -"

"I bought the ring yesterday," Ripley interrupted, not taking his eyes off Vic. "And we know it's not legally binding, that doesn't matter."

"If he's going to die I want to have married him first," Vic said. "And if he doesn't die, I'll kill him for being so stupid as to  _not get checked out for a head injury_ OR smoke inhalation after  _cracking his SCBA_  after said head injury, and then marry him properly."

"You have to marry me properly  _before_ you kill me," Ripley pointed out. "Only way to get my life insurance."

"You better not die then, jackass," she sniffled. "Or you'll foil my plan to become a rich widow."

"So to be clear, everyone knows this is a non-binding wedding ceremony?" the priest checked.

"I mean, yeah, it's just saying stuff like the Last Rites but it matters to us," Vic said.

"Don't insult the man's religion before he marries us," Lucas hissed. "I'm Lucas. Lucas John Ripley."

"I'm Victoria Anne Hughes."

"Okay, well, I'm Father James Rollston."

"Sully?" Robert stepped forward, and Lucas shoved the ring box into his hand. "You're carrying the ring. We only have one."

"No, here," Travis stepped up behind Vic, and wrestled his ring off, looking at Lucas. "Your fingers are longer, but they're skinnier."

"That's yours," Vic shook her head.

"Michael, more than anyone, would understand. And he thought the world of you, sir, and was so proud when his Captain got promoted," Travis said, tears in his eyes.

"I'll give it back to you," Lucas promised.

"You'd better," Travis said. "Cos if you're dead I'll have to kill you for breaking her heart."

"Okay, we ready -?" a wardsman entered the room and stopped, staring in confusion at the team of people assembled. "Um. I'm here to take Mr Ripley to theatre."

"I'm getting married, give me a minute," Lucas said.

"Okay, dearly beloved, we are gathered here -"

"I can barely hear the priest, Bobby, move me closer," a tinny voice sounded from Travis' phone.

"I put Jen on speaker," Sullivan explained. "His sister. Could you maybe hold the phone so she can hear you?"

The very confused priest shook his head, and accepted the phone. "We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Lucas John Ripley and Victoria Anne Hughes. Uh, do you want just standard vows or your own -"

"I've got my own," Vic said.

"So do I."

"Okay, um, your vows then Lucas."

"I, Lucas John Ripley, do take you, Victoria Anne Hughes to be my not-lawfully-wedded wife. I promise to love you, respect you, and you said you wanted inspiration and I don't know how to do that but I promise I will work out how to provide that and I will give you rainbows and hearts and toilet paper in whatever combination you want and even if we don't have a piece of paper to make this legal I am marrying you for real right now and I hope death and or disability doesn't part us."

There was a pause. "Oh yeah and I got you a ring. It's not fancy, it's just one that I thought you could wear to work and then I'll get you whatever rings you want when I can take you shopping. But this ring is real. And it's yours."

Sullivan handed Lucas the ring, and with shaking hands he slid it onto Vic's finger.

"Victoria," the priest said.

"I, Victoria Anne Hughes, do take you, Lucas John Ripley to be my not-yet-lawfully wedded husband. I love you, Lucas, and I want you and I was lying when I said I didn't need you and you inspire me without trying. I promise to find you a not-terrible nursing home if you need it but I don't want you to need one. I promise that I will love you, call you out on your stupidity, and spend the rest of my life trying to make you smile because you're super hot when you smile and you don't smile enough. I will make you happy."

"You already do," he interrupted.

"Shut up, I let you talk," she said, crying.

"If you die I'll be really angry with you because this is Travis' ring and you need to give it back to him. And then I'll take you ring shopping." She took Travis' ring with shaking hands. It wouldn't quite fit over the first knuckle on his ring finger, but it slid over his little finger without a problem.

"By the moral power vested in me by the Church of Jesus Christ, and in the eyes and hearts of all the witnesses here even if not the eyes of the law, I now pronounce you husband and wife," the priest paused. "I'd say you could now kiss the bride but she's beat you to it."

"Um, they're waiting for him," the porter interrupted awkwardly, unlocking the brakes on the bed, as Lucas broke away from the kiss coughing.

"I love you, Vic," he said. "I don't have words to say how much. And I'll see you after."

"Promise?" she asked, fully sobbing.

"Promise," Lucas gave her a broad, cocky grin and then his gaze travelled beyond Vic. "Travis -"

"I'll take care of her," he promised, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Jenny? I love you and the family too," he said, turning towards the phone.

"I'll see you soon, Lukey. I'm just in my car, and I'll be at Grey Sloan soon. I love you, bro."

Lucas kissed Vic's hand and then let go, as the porter started to slowly wheel him out of the room. Travis wrapped her in his arms.

* * *

 "Hi," a bearded young man poked his head awkwardly into the waiting room. Vic paused in her pacing.

"This is Glasses - Levi Schmitt. He found -" Ben began.

"You're Flower Boy?" Vic interrupted, clicking her fingers at him.

"Yes? You're the person he wants to spend the rest of his life with?"

"Well, we got married," Vic said, walking over and surprising the shorter man with a hug. "Thank you for saving his life so I could marry him."

"I'm sorry," Levi said.

"He owes you flowers," Vic said, drawing back. "You need something that says, 'sorry you killed someone'?"

"Yeah. There's not exactly a bouquet for that," he said, shifting nervously.

"Let's go to the hospital shop. I'll help you find something," Vic offered.

"No, really, you don't have to," Levi said. "I can work it out, you be here for tall coughing guy."

"This room is killing me and it's the least I can do for you saving his life," Vic said. "I'm Vic, by the way, and his name is Lucas."

"Are you sure?"

"Travis, call me if there's news, or when Jennifer arrives so I can ... I don't know. Meet her?" Vic ordered. "Right. Um. Do you know where the hospital shop is from here? I usually only go to the ER."

"You take my phone," Travis pushed it to her with a sigh. "Seeing as we don't know where yours is. We'll call you."

They headed down to the shop in silence. 

"See, my trouble was, roses are romantic and not right," Levi began.

"No, definitely not," Vic agreed. "Also, you don't want something too, like, pink? Or too red?"

"I think I got tulips initially but I don't think they're right."

"How about these purpley flowers? Purple's kind of reassuring but not, like, happy," Vic suggested.

"Oh that looks great!" Levi said, brightening. (The bouquet really did kind of look right).

"Can they customise these? Cos if you added that, and maybe that," Vic continued.

[By the time they'd finished, and Vic had paid using Travis' credit card in his phone case, Levi was pretty sure he'd gotten the perfect bouquet].

* * *

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the eyes of God and the Law to celebrate the legal union between Lucas John Ripley and Victoria Anne Hughes," Father Rollston began with a twinkle in his eye.

In front of him, Vic and Lucas were holding hands, gazing at each other like there was no-one else in the room, just as they'd done in their first wedding. Travis and Sullivan were standing on either side of the couple, looking a little less concerned than they had done on the occasion of their first wedding.

Father Rollston still couldn't quite understand exactly what had possessed them to have an adult man be their flower boy, but then again, given how comparatively normal this wedding was he didn't plan on questioning it.

 


End file.
